Im at a crossroads with this one. Im not sure what I think of the gray area. It mostly sits on top of the wood surface and doesn't sink below like the stains everywhere else. I think I might sand away some highlights and see how that looks. Maybe after that I will use a white pickling stain. However, before anything, I should put in the shadows. I think thats what I will do.
Just put in the shadows. I'll have to wait until the morning to sand in the areas where I want to apply the white stain. Its wierd that I like the gray sweater in the pictures I take of the piece, but when standing in front of it Im not too sure. At least its looking a little better with a bit more shading.
Tried sanding in some highlights with the mouse sander but was not very successful. Im starting to hate the filmy gray. I might as well get rid of it. Its not that I think all areas of the painting need to have the same depth into the wood. Its that Im not excited about the filmy home-made stain. It sucks. Im not feeling it. Oh well, it was a nice experiment.
Well... I think what you have going on is pretty sweet, and by no means am I any expert at what you do, but... I will put in my 2 cents anyways. At this point the sweater is not something I am a fan of. on its own, it looks good, but looking at what you are working from, it seems as though you don't want the sweater to be the focal point, and truthfully that was the first thing my eye was drawn too. It looks much better in the 2nd photo though. Maybe make it a little more "ghost like?"
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback Chris! I always value your opinion. Im thinking that alot of my problems with the sweater are coming from the fact that the gray pigment in my "home-made" stain simply sits on top of the wood and packs into the grain. It doesn't soak in and shine from underneath like my Minwax stains. Im two seconds away from staining it a English Chestnut if I could just get off this fence. I could work with it as is, but Im afraid that after all that work to try to get it to an OK place, I still won't like that the gray is a film on the surface.
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